BRAIDED WITH LOVE
by Capturing Essence
Summary: When Sherline Holmes is the surrogate mother to Mary and John's child, pregnancy mood swings will have an all new meaning! Post- Reichenbach. Fem Sherlock. Genre:Strictly friendship,Humour and family drama.Non-Beta'ed CHAPTER-10 :'Back to Chase' Part- THREE up now!
1. Mary and John

**AN**: Hi everyone! Well this is me trying my hand at writing a female Sherlock and her epic friendship with the ever adorable Dr. Watson. So from the beginning till the very end it is going to be purely friendship of epic proportions with large doses of happy family drama, humour and a really tiny bit of angst. I generally do not write multi-chapter fictions as I'm very bad at following it up, so reviews will surely be an encouragement to be regular.

_Also this is neither beta-ed nor Brit-picked. I apologize in advance for the grammatical errors. Please read the end notes for my Beta request._

**WARNING: **1. Canonical Minor character death (Mary Watson)

2. Mentions of IVF (In-vitro fertilization), surrogacy and pregnancy mood swings. And liberty will be taken about these issues for story's sake, so won't be scientifically very accurate.

3. Third person POV. Narration/story telling style.

**SUMMARY**: When Sherline Holmes is the surrogate mother to Mary and John's child, pregnancy mood swings will have an all new meaning! Post- Reichenbach.

* * *

**CHAPTER-1**

** Mary and John**

Sherline Holmes had returned from her supposed death, 2 days after the tragic death of Mary Watson in a road traffic accident (RTA). The accident was caused by a speeding car which when trying to avert a collision with another, suddenly swerved and rammed on the pedestrians walking on the side-walk, killing one and injuring two others.

Sherline had been supposedly dead for 3 years and 4 and half months now.

...

John was miserable in every way one would be if they lost their love of their life so suddenly, especially when one was just planning to start a family with them. He was completely devastated that he hadn't even noticed a silent figure lurking in the background during Mary's well attended funeral, which had taken place two days after her death due to various procedures associated with a RTA victim.

...

Mary had entered John's life exactly 7 months and 3 days after Sherly's death, when she had accompanied her friend to his clinic. If one would believe in destiny and 'love at first sight', they surely would say that is what happened when these two met that fateful day. But the two involved parties being too sane and skeptical and one just recovering from a great personal loss, were not going to make few hormones trick them into believing they were in love. So they did not even bother getting each other's numbers, each believing that it is an unprofessional thing to do.

So when they ran into each other due to pure chance for the third time in totally unsuspecting places, they decided to confront each other, err well literally. Somehow both instead of feeling all romantic and tingly, accused each other of stalking. And funnily they spoke at the exact same time causing the other to pause and think what the other person was saying and making themselves a spectacle in middle of the café which later turned out to be both their favourites, among many of the other common shared favourites.

At the end of that spectacle both decided they needed to sit civilly and discuss whatever was happening. And somehow it rather turned to be a confessional session with each saying that they know something was there between them which did not seem to have any basis. So being the sane people they were, they didn't think it would work out between them. John even hinted about personal loss too vaguely and with that they decided to leave things be.

Well that was until when Mary literally fell into his lap exactly 3 weeks later due to pure coincidence again. It happened when John was getting up from the crouching position he had been for past 20 minutes for feeding the ducks in the pond in the nearby park on a Sunday morning when something or somebody in this case, ran into him and both fell back on the ground. But this time however when they realized who the other person was, instead of fighting, both started to laugh out loudly thinking that their fate too was adamant just like them. And they finally decided to exchange numbers and go out for coffee.

...

That was the beginning of an epic love story which was almost fit to be a fairy tale. They were just perfect for each other; their characters were totally in sync with the other that it really seemed they were destined for each other. They married just after 5 months of starting their relationship and even though it seemed early, everyone who knew them certainly had to agree that it was something inevitable.

They had a simple traditional wedding, a week after Sherly's first death anniversary.

Their wedded life had been a thing of envy to all those with evil hearts and a testament for true love and happiness for every good hearted person who knew them. So two years into their marriage with John having a permanent job at Bart's and Mary already being a successful software professional, when they decided to add another member to their family of two, the only problem that they encountered was biological. It seemed Mary's womb was too weak and was unable to support the development of the fetus to full term. So instead of making too much fuss and worrying, John had simply suggested surrogacy and Mary too thought it was a more practical choice. Thus the matter was decided soon enough.

It was during this sweetly anxious time when they had just finalized everything about the surrogacy and submitted their samples for IVF at the lab the day before, the tragedy of Mary's death occurred.

* * *

**AN: **_Reviews are always appreciated and will be replied to._

**Beta request**: Well if you have read the above chapter and thought it would have been much better without the grammatical errors and if you have the patience to read through much of this non-sense and would be able to proof read few chapters at one go (because I need to post this in next few weeks and finish it before next month for some reasons), you are the person I have been praying to meet! So Please PM me and I would surely be very grateful. :)


	2. Return of Holmes

AN: Sorry, still non beta-ed. But hopefully the MS word grammar police has helped in some meagre way at least. :)

Chapter-2

**The return of Holmes**

John was sitting on the wet mud underneath which his beloved Mary now rested. He wanted to join her, he just wanted to seep into the soil like the rain drops falling on it. He was sitting alone there as he had requested everyone. They were skeptical but he had convinced them that he wouldn't do anything adverse and that he just needed to say goodbye to his wife in peace. But not everyone left of course; no matter how much John had convinced them, they still couldn't trust him in this condition. So Lestrade and Harry, both were waiting patiently for him in their cars having silently decided to give John a maximum of an hour out there in the rain and in case he did not return by then, they would go and fetch him.

...

Harry was sober and had been for a year and a half now. She had been really close to Mary, somebody whom she could consider a close friend, someone whom she never had before in a life she had wasted on alcoholism and meaningless and worthless romantic pursuits. She was single at present and was thoroughly enjoying it. She has decided that now if she would find somebody it would be someone whom she could love to the extent how John and Mary loved each other; their love was her benchmark for true love now.

...

Lestrade was still the best DI of the Scotland Yard, even despite all the black marks smeared on his name for involving Holmes in their cases. He had always been a very good mate to John and even more after that fateful day at the Bart's. He had been a frequent visitor to the Watson household's Sunday brunch, which was one of Mary's many specialities. And he was always considered more a member of their family than a guest.

...

Neither of these two people noticed that a female figure who was still lurking behind the trees, getting wet in the rain and staring intently at the figure sobbing on the freshly re-laid mud when they went to fetch John again after extra half an hour.

But they surely were in for a surprise later, when the three would reach 221b Baker Street.

...

Mrs. Hudson, the dear old lady had suggested that they bring John back to Baker street as she was sure he would turn even more miserable if he returned back to the house where all of Mary's possessions was there to remind him of her absence.

But John had of course opposed to that saying he was fed up of running from memories, for he moved from Baker street to run away from Sherly's memories and now he was going back there to run away from Mary's...

But in the end the motherly lady had won the argument and John was in no mood for fighting and so had agreed to stay in Baker Street for next few days at the very least.

**...**

So Harry, Lestrade and John had comeback to Baker street directly from the cemetery. But when the three climbed those 17 steps and opened the door to 221b with John in the lead, they just had to dash into each other when John suddenly jerked to a sudden halt just after entering the threshold. And just when the other two were opening their mouth to ask whether John was alright, they both caught the glimpse of an eerily familiar figure sitting on the sofa in an equally eerily familiar pose. There on the sofa sat Sherline bloody Holmes complete with her ever famous great coat giving semblance of a living being as if the last 3 and half years had just been a stupid, bad dream which everyone had dreamt up simultaneously.

...

It took around total of 5 minutes of stunned, jaw-dropping silence and 15 seconds of Sherly opening her mouth and speaking in that same unique voice of hers to confirm her status among the living beings, for John to drop like a dead weight towards the floor, unconscious.

Well lucky for him the other two quickly caught him before he hit the floor and hurt himself. They then carried him straight to the nearby bedroom and carefully placed him on the bed, all the way keenly ignoring the presence sailing behind them. They sprinkled some water onto John's face and patted his cheeks gently, to wake him. When he came back to his senses, the first thing he blurted was, "I saw Sherly! Can you believe it? I think I saw her ghost!"

For which Sherline replied, "Seriously John, Ghost? Haven't I taught you anything?" in the same familiar lofty tone of hers, which prompted all the three to stare at her.

John suddenly jumped up from the bed and came to stand next to Sherly almost invading her personal space. He then gingerly touched her nose as if to check whether she was solid or just a figment of his imagination and all this is a part of some of his wild hallucination. But when he saw the familiar sarcastic smile on that unearthly face, it was all he ever needed to to confirm that it was actually his Sherly, his best-est friend, who was standing in front of him in actual flesh and blood and to give her a soul crushing hug.

They stood like that for almost 3 minutes, when suddenly John broke the emotional embrace with a jerk. He then glared at her with such a fury which could have freezed hell over many times; his hands had begun to shake uncontrollably and only this time it was clear that it was from repressed fury. He had balled his hands into fists and if she would have been a man, it was clear that he would have punched her with a force that could have broken her mandible. But she was a female and John was a true gentleman, he would never raise a hand over her and for that she really should have been thankful. So instead John just turned and left the room with forced deliberate steps leaving Sherly for the other two to deal with.

...

Now it was Lestrade's turn after few minutes of awkward tense silence after John dramatic exit. He just came near her and stood glaring at her with a look which was part anger, part betrayal, part disbelief and part disgust. Anger, betrayal and disbelief were there for obvious reasons and disgust, because even though she had been alive and knew how much John had suffered, she had allowed it to happen, had left John to die of sadness; and he would have too if Mary hadn't come into his life in the right time. So he just stood there and glared at her and this was all did before he too left the room like a gentleman who really did not want to deal with a lady in his anger.

Harry was the only one left now. And she being a female had the advantage and full freedom to vent her justifiable anger on behalf of her brother. So she readily gave a tight slap on the very much suspecting and even expecting, Sherline Holmes. She even raised her hands again intending for a second, only to lose her steam and storm out of the bedroom in a huff.

...

In the living room, each one was sitting in complete silence, when Mrs. Hudson entered with tea for everybody. And the tray which was falling from her hands was rescued by the very one to cause the shock for it to fall. Sherly then waited patiently for Mrs. Hudson's reaction, which came in the form of sudden shriek, weak thumps, coat-pulling and a weak yet powerful hug. Tears were flowing freely from the eyes of the elderly woman and Sherly felt a strange feeling somewhere near the anatomical location of the organ called heart. She gently returned the hug and held the sobbing lady till she was sure enough to stand on her legs without them buckling below her. Then to hide the awkwardness of the situation Sherly playfully asked, "No tea for me Mrs hudson?". And Mrs. Hudson tutting Sherly said "You haven't changed a bit, I see. Well, I will go and make a cuppa for you too, give me a moment to gather myself, dear. After-all it is not everyday someone dear comes back from the dead now,is it? And the rest of you dears start drinking before the tea gets cold."

...

The atmosphere of the room was so slippery that everyone was sure that whoever who would open their mouth first would fall miserably; so the silence prevailed. Well atleast till the annoying sound of a cell phone ringing disturbed the peace like it disturbs in every place where it is not supposed to ring. But in this case it was Lestrade's phone and everytime his phone rang somebody most probably would have been already dead and somebody somewhere always had the potential to be, so he took the call. And just when he finished the call, he caught the eyes of the consulting detective who despite the circumstance had a hint of smug grin on her lips confirming his mental theories at once. He then left the group saying he has some urgent work and will be back in the evening and would bring dinner along with him. The first part of the sentence even though was said facing John was more intended towards the lanky form still huddled in that giant old coat of hers indicating a more serious conversation to come.

...

With Lestrade leaving, Harry on the contrary felt the room was even more congested than before, that it was almost suffocating. She wanted to stay with her brother; she had even applied for leave at her office for another week so she could help him settle back to his life atleast a bit. But now it seemed she wasn't needed, even though she knew very well that Sherly was the woman who had hurt her dear elder brother the most, she also knew that now she is back, there is nobody else in this world who can understand and comfort him like her. In the beginning of this unusual partnership she like everyone else had thought that it was going into something romantic in the years to come and that friendship was just the first step towards that inevitable ending. But as the years went by she and all others who had bet their money on these two to become a romantic couple, were proved wrong and thankfully so, because their relationship was the best the way it was and it was just the way these two ever wanted to be. She was really glad that her brother and his friend were not weak mortals who succumbed to external pressure and gossip and decided to turn their pure and rare friendship into something else that neither of them wanted it to be.

She had admittedly been jealous of their relationship many times, always wondering how two people can so selflessly love each other and not even want the comfort of romantic love. But then she always knew that if anyone deserved that kind of respect and love, it should have to be her brother. Because for her, he was her first best friend; a person who supported her through her younger years from the bullies, during her teen rebel years from her parents and during her later alcohol muddled years from her own destructive self. He was always with her; he might not have been happy with her actions but he had never failed to be her side when she ever needed him.

* * *

AN: Do feel free to drop a word about what you think of this. I know this feels kind of dragging but believe me I'm trying my best to finish these sentimental stuff soon so that the main part of Sherly's pregnancy cravings (as mentioned in the summary) comes soon. As that is the very reason I started writing this story, after all ! :)


	3. The truth

**Chapter-3**

**THE TRUTH**

Harry then left them both alone saying she will go and help Mrs. Hudson downstairs. And before going she motioned to the untouched tea cups and asked them both to drink that up. But after she left, the remaining two people left in the room were more than happy to just sit there and stare at nothing. Well that was when someone's phone started to ring. Sherly then got up and found that it was Harry's phone which she had left on the kitchen table.

She found that it was Harry's phone in the same way she had done the first time she had deduced that John's phone was gifted to him by someone who was an alcoholic, as this phone too had scratch marks but this time they were very fine lines indicating of addiction withdrawal tremors.

...

Sherly thought it would be much less nuisance to pick up the phone and tell the caller that Harry wasn't there, than to silence the call making the caller to call again and again or worse, to panic and call everyone else and disturb them. So she picked up the call and had just said "hello" to begin the conversation, when the female voice on the other end started to talk in a rush of sentences even before she could tell them that she wasn't the one to whom they were intending to speak.

But in all those flood of words what Sherly heard and understood made her want to maintain the façade. The woman on the other end most probably seemed like a fertility expert at Bart's and John's acquaintance but did not seem to know Harry personally since she was saying that she had gotten this number from Mike Stamford. She was saying that she was sorry for calling at such distressful time and disturbing her but that the matter was of utmost importance and she did not want to call John directly.

She told that it was regarding the IVF samples John and Mary had given 2 days before and that they generally implant it into the womb of the surrogate mother mostly after 3 days and in certain cases it may be done even after 5-7 days later. But in any case, the maximum time they can keep the fertilized sample in the lab is for another 4-5 days only and if it isn't implanted before that, it would all go to waste. And since that day was the third day, she wanted to know the next step they wanted to take after considering the recent turn of events.

...

Sherly was totally dumbstruck hearing all that. She did not know what she was supposed to do. Seeing John's condition she could not speak to him regarding this then, as that will only break his heart further thinking that now his family would never be complete. But atlast she said to the woman on the phone that she wasn't Harry and that she was just trying (albeit very, very feebly) to tell her that from the very beginning but when the other woman started to apologize for jumping into conclusions, she decided that it was better to pacify her than for her to call them again and disturb them. So she said that it was nothing to worry and that she was John friend and that she will discuss with John and let them know later.

When Sherly came back to sit on the sofa processing what she had just heard, John's curious eyes were fixed on her, wondering whom was she speaking for so long on Harry's phone. She just gave him a shrug thinking that John would think it was another condolence message for him. She could see the way sadness seeped into his eyes again as he assumed exactly that. She hated to see that expression in his eyes, the expression he had when he had visited her grave during all these years. Atleast she had comeback, the miracle that John had wanted had happened… but now, there was no humanly possible way, Mary could come back and this expression would always be etched into her best friend's face every time he thought about Mary and she couldn't do anything about it.

John then turned his face to the side to discreetly wipe away those escaping tears but his tear stained cheeks and red eyes were betraying him. He then spoke with an voice which was full of stuffed up emotions that were begging to break free. John asked the question Sherly most dreaded but sooner or later expected to hear from him. he asked, "Why?"

That seemingly simple, single word of questioning had innumerable answers and not all of those were even clear to Sherline herself. What could she say to him when she herself did not understand why the self proclaimed sociopath, Sherline Holmes was willing to jump of a building to protect him? True that Moriarty had said about the other two too, but to be frank it was kind of overkill; she would have gladly jumped just for John alone and it was kind of established fact after the pool incident and the incident with the Americans at The Woman's house.

She could not understand when and how this seemingly ordinary doctor broke into her great wall of self defense to create a permanent place for himself in it. She had never had friends, acquaintances yes, but never friends; at least that is what she had thought until one Dr. John Watson waltzed into her life with a psychosomatic limp and killer shots. He had been there as a true friend for her and in the true sense of the word. He was not a lover in disguise of a friend; he did not want or expect the relationship they had to turn into something else, even though she knew anyone other than her John would have wanted that. It was one of the many things she liked about him. But what she liked the most was that he was always the same; a constant, an unchanging factor in the equation of her life; he was the anchor to her ever wandering mindscapes.

It had taken a fraction of a second for all these thoughts to run through the mind of Sherline Holmes after she heard John's question. She then decided that what John needed was plain facts and the emotional reasons behind them were better left unsaid because if someone truly understood her emotions it would be her John more than anybody else.

She then started to tell him about Moriarty's plan and her own plan to fake her death. She told him that she was expecting Moriarty to attack him as he was threatening her with his 'IOUs' which was him indicating that he was planning to harm everyone who was close to her heart. So she then went to tell him all about how she roped in Molly's and Mycroft's help to stage the elaborate scene on the roof of Bart's that day. On hearing Molly's and Mycroft's names, she could hear john suck in an angry sigh of breath. His eyes were glistening in fury and betrayal but she decided to continue without a pause before John lost his cool and the truth remained unsaid. So she went on to tell about how when she jumped the people below caught her safely in a net and then replaced another dead body matching her descriptions when John had come to check her pulse. The much needed time delay was also preplanned as it was one Mycroft's man on the bicycle who had hit John on the road causing his fall. She told him that she had to act it all out because those people who were planted by Moriarty were still having their eyes on her while she was jumping and making John believe was the only way to save all their lives.

And before John could ask her all the obvious questions, she herself decided to answer them beforehand by saying that she couldn't intimate him about her living status and whereabouts as the threat on all their lives especially his was still out there as Moriarty's right hand man who was controlling his empire now was still roaming free. She then paused and added with a smug grin, "Or well had been, atleast till yesterday."

John had heard a lot to digest and his emotions were like as if they were on a roller-coaster ride with sudden ups n downs and little steadiness in between. And by the time he processed the end words almost five minutes had passed. So when the meaning of those last words Sherly had said dawned on him, the enormity of the whole incident too dawned on him. The spoken and unspoken reasons for why his best friend had lied to him started to become clear from the fog which had clouded his mind. Five minutes were not enough to process this whole three years worth of happenings, but for now atleast the basics of all how and why these things happened had become clear to him. He may or may not agree to many of the things that had happened or the way they happened, but atleast for now he was calm enough to speak to his long lost friend without feeling the necessity to break all those incisors and canines of her's.

So when he found his friend crawling slowly towards him on the sofa, he just turned and smiled a ghost of the smile before pulling her by her shoulders towards him and laying his head on the said shoulders with a relieved sigh.

That is how Lestrade, Harry and Mrs. Hudson found them both after few hours; with John resting his head on Sherly's shoulders and she in turn resting her chin on his head and both of them sleeping soundly and calmly even in their odd position. The sight brought the much needed smile on all the three's faces and they silently agreed upon leaving them like that for few more hours.

* * *

AN: Reviews are welcome asusual. :)


	4. Some friendly banter

**AN**: A small chapter and hopefully light hearted too. :)

**CHAPTER-4**

**SOME FRIENDLY BANTER**

When John and Sherly finally got up it was almost 9.30 PM and both had a slight muscle sprain in their necks. But looking at both their faces, anyone would have said that the slight ache was well worth it as they both seemed infinitely better than they both were before the much need nap. They both were ravenously hungry and were so glad that whoever had come into their flat while they were sleeping were kind enough to leave cartons of food behind. But both being too lazy enough to heat it in a microwave, instead just opened it and started to attack it with fervor. But somewhere in the middle of eating John suddenly paused with the spoon full of food in mid air. He was overwhelmed by the sudden guilt which he felt. He was eating food and enjoying here, when his dear Mary was buried somewhere 6 feet below the ground. He felt ashamed of himself.

Sherly who just then noticed that John had stopped eating looked at him to find fresh tears rolling off his eyes. She immediately understood the reason for that. Somehow when it came to guessing the motives behind John's actions, it came more easily to her than deciding what was good and 'bit not good' regarding others. She knew he was wallowing in forced guilt for enjoying simple thing as eating when he had just lost his wife. She could never understand why people behaved that way; why people felt making themselves suffer will somehow ease the pain which was caused by some other factor. She was glad she was a sociopath, well albeit a little at least, even though the recent events were strictly pointing against that fact, which she ofcourse conveniently ignored.

She calmly laid a hand on John's shoulder and spoke in a soft tone. She said, "John, I'm sure Mary is not and can't be hungry anymore but you are and so you really need to eat." When she earned a glare from John, she decided what she said must have said something that fell into the category called 'bit not good'...again. So she modified her sentence to something she has heard normal people like John and Lestrade tell to grieving family members of the victims often and said , "Err what I meant was Mary is in a better place now and she is happy wherever she is now. I'm sure she would want you to be happy too. It would make her sad right, if because of her you are destroying your life? Think about that John." Somehow this time she must have got it right as John started to wipe his tears and turned towards her with a slight smile starting on his lips and said, "Thank you."

But somehow, it seemed both their appetite had vanished after that conversation and both decided they would eat it later. So they kept the leftovers in the fridge and went back to sitting on the couch. After few minutes of companionable silence , John slowly turned towards Sherly and said, " What you said before, that was really good. Made me feel really better." Sherly was just starting to smile smugly on achieving the feat of making John happy when John added, "You heard that exact speech when I was talking to that little girl who had recently lost her mother in a murder in that 'flight of the pigeons' case, right?"

'Caught' was the first word that came to her mind when she heard John say that and her resulting facial reaction must have been really funny because what she heard after that a sound she had missed for almost 3 years… the lovely sound of Dr. John Watson's laughter. After sometime she too sheepishly joined in his mirth for it really was infectious.

….

The next morning when John woke up to the smell of fresh food wafting from the kitchen, for a minute he smiled in the same blissful way he used to wake up on those lazy Sundays when the famed Watson household brunch would have been cooking. But a moment in, the reality came crashing down. Mary was no more. Those wonderful Sundays were now all but a part of his brain where some of his life's most wonderful memories were stored.

So when he got up and came out after getting ready for the morning, the sight he took in was nothing short of alternate reality. There in the kitchen was Sherline Holmes cooking something on the stove and Harry and Mrs. Hudson sitting idly around the kitchen table and drinking tea. Sherly was the one who first took notice of John and she waved him towards the table saying, "What are you staring at John, come sit and eat something before your sister finishes all the scrambled eggs and bacon; even though she kept complaining about the shells in the eggs!" For which Harry shot a deadly glare towards her, but did not comment on it.

Mrs. Hudson then patted a seat next to her for John to join them on the table, which he took gratefully eventhough he really doubted it was all some comic dream... Because Sherline Holmes cooking and others sitting and eating that food, should really be the start of something like a darkly humorous joke or even more apt, a horror story!

So when he softly asked others as what was going on, indicating discreetly towards Sherly; it was ofcourse Sherly herself who answered. She said, " For the past three years, the only pass time other than crap telly and occasional spotting of people I was searching for was… cooking." And after a smug pause, because even her pauses are smug it seems; she added, "Don't give me that look John, I can cook extraordinarily!" The said look was a totally unbelievable scoff from John which became a full fledged snort when Sherly declared that she could cook extraordinarily. Seriously even in cooking it seems she found 'ordinary' boring.

She then sniffed and put her nose up in that haughty manner she always did when she thought whole world was full of nothing but a bunch of idiots not really worth her time; she proceeded to put whatever she was cooking into John's plate. She was then standing impatiently behind his chair waiting for him to taste it and accept the truth that she was a chef extraordinaire. So John slowly took the piece of what seemed like the afore mentioned scrambled egg and ate it.

There was a loud crunch of quite a few bits of egg shells in a single mouthful he took. And since spitting them out would offend his friend he decided to humour her and eat through atleast that single mouthful, if not anything else. He then ate a small piece of what seemed to fried bacon which thankfully was more edible than the scrambled eggs. But when Sherly noticed that he was not touching the eggs again and nor was he exclaiming at her expert culinary skills, she got cross and asked him why he wasn't eating the eggs. And when he replied that it was full of shell pieces, she replied, "Oh for God's sake John, don't be like your whiny sister who doesn't understand my haute cooking methods! I just added them for some crunch! Ordinary scrambled eggs are too soft and boring!" And stormed off from the kitchen into her room to sulk. The rest of the people gathered around the table gave a look to the retreating figure and then towards each other and burst out laughing. And when Harry said, "She totally smashed the egg, I can bet on it! It was no haute cooking method or any crap like that." , there resounded another bout of merry laughter throughout the house.

* * *

**AN**: I know there wasn't much in this chapter; but I just wanted to add some happy moments into it, mainly because again next chapter will be heavy on emotions where the matter of surrogacy will be brought up and if I have any say in it (which I have thankfully), it will be finalized for sure! :D

Updates will be more frequent as I have something kind of a deadline to finish this, so for all those lovely people who have placed alerts, I'm sorry, it is going to be bugging you. :)

And thank you all lovelies for reading, reviewing and placing alerts on this fic. It makes me immensely happy that you all are showing interest in this! :D


	5. The Holmes siblings

**AN:** Hello everybody! Well this chapter has Mycroft! Okay, I'm kind of crazy about him from the very first time I read the books, so I'm might be overly excited about this, so err sorry. :)

Happy reading!

* * *

**CHAPTER-5 **

**THE HOLMES SIBLINGS**

Sherly who was currently sulking in her room on the normal people's incompetency in comprehending her culinary genius,at least felt a little better when she heard John's and Mrs. Hudson's merry laughter from downstairs, even if it was at her expense. Well she did not care much for Harry, to be frank. But she was John's sister and she did care for John, so Sherly petulantly thought she might bear with her annoying laughter too.

She then decided that she needed to think of more important matters rather than her wasting time. So in a way she thought that it was good that she was alone now as she needed to decide what to do about the pressing issue at hand. She needed to tell John about the phone call at earliest chance possible as they were running out of time very soon.

...

But the problem was whether John would be able to make a wise decision about that matter in his current situation, or not. She did not want John to take a decision in a moment of anger or grief and then regret his decision throughout his life. Because if she knew John well enough, which she ofcourse knew, he would not agree to proceed with the IVF process. Because he would think that, now that Mary wasn't there, there wouldn't be any purpose in bringing a new life into this world who would not have mother's love; ranting on the injustice of everything that constituted the world. Also he wouldn't consider himself good enough to raise a kid alone comparing him with Mary and how she would have raised the kid if she was alive.

Because now onwards, atleast for a few months if not years, everything John would think would be in 'would have beens' instead of what it really is. She would not blame John for that; but after few months when reality would dawn upon him and he would realize that he had lost forever the only remaining testimony of the life Mary and he shared, it would simply devastate him and he would not be able to forgive himself for that. So Sherly decided that it was now upon her to make him realize that he would be making a mistake if he did not proceed with this procedure.

...

But the next major question was that that who was going to be the surrogate mother to John's baby? She knew John and Mary would have already decided on somebody; and knowing them both they would have preferred somebody professional for their baby, mostly someone the doctors at the facility would have suggested.

But somehow the idea that John's baby would be growing somewhere where neither of them could not have access, that is they could meet the mother only at her convenience, was a little upsetting. And it would be even more stressful for John, that now Mary was not there and baby would be somewhere far away until it is born.

She also did not want to imagine what sort of woman that surrogate would be, as even though the DNA was John's and Mary's, the surrogate mother who was carrying the baby for all the nine months would be a major influence in baby's physical and mental development. She was sure she could find all about her life if she could get a chance to look at her. And not very surprisingly, decided on doing just that. She decided she would ask Mycroft's help in finding her and only after she thought the other woman was fit enough to be the surrogate, she would tell to John about the call.

Because somewhere in the back of her mind a new idea had been developing ever since she attended that phone call and after seeing all those miserable tears of John, it was getting stronger. But she was Sherline Holmes and she only did things in a properly logical way with proof and all, so she decided to hold that thought until she concluded her small investigation; and in a way it would be the first she was doing after she had come back to the land of living… She surely was excited.

… … …

She went to meet Mycroft telling John that she wanted to discuss few things regarding her resurrection with her brother. When she reached Diogenes' club and found her brother, she saw that he was sipping some fruit juice and going through few news papers. She smirked and said, "_Good to see that you are back to your dieting brother. Your waistline seems to be ever expanding just like your influence over the world._"

Mycroft smirked in return and said, "_Ahh dear sister, welcome back to the land of mortals and yes, thank you for that hidden compliment on my success. It is very much appreciated._" And saying so, he motioned her to a seat opposite him and offered her a glass of juice wordlessly which when she refused to drink, he glared at her a glare she had received many a times throughout her life from him; it said _'You are so skinny that even skeleton would have an obesity complex seeing you! So better drink up!_'. And as usual she petulantly took a sip from the glass.

This was how the Holmes siblings showed their loved towards each other… by bickering and teasing each other with brilliantly worded insults and some skillfully hidden praises when deserved, which unsurprisingly only a Holmes would know how to decipher and decide which part of a sentence was important and what was just a filler. To an outsider it would seem that they both never got along and always fought with each other and thus most of them assumed that their childhood was difficult and what not. But only those very few who knew them both well enough would know that this was their style of friendly banter and their means to keep that special childhood bond every sibling shared, alive in this busy, fast paced distant world around them.

It is not to say that they did not have a sibling rivalry between them because if two extremely brilliant persons are in the same room, some conflicts are bound to arise and they had a fare share of those when they were growing up. Sherly always resented him for his 7 years of seniority, which she accused was what was responsible for him being more brilliant than her whenever she failed to beat him in the games they played as children, which ofcourse were all too well above either of their biological ages. And later when she had become a pro in deducing stuff, which incidentally was also taught to by her brother, she still resented him that he could deduce more information by just a mere look, as opposite to her who had to spend atleast a minute to come to the same conclusions. Then one day, she had explained logically to him that since they both shared the same genes and everything, it should have to be his 7 years of extra experience in this world that made all the difference. And he being the silently doting brother he was, always agreed with her however preposterous the conclusions were and apologized to her for that.

So now like everytime, when he just sent a message and his PA came in with a folder in her hand and he took it and gave it to Sherline, she thought that her brother was secretly omniscient; a claim he always vehemently denied; like now for example, because when he saw her face, he shook his head in negative with a smirk. And all these impossible ideas (atleast she did not have any scientific proof that 'omniscience' existed till now) was coming into her head because the folder contained the details regarding John and Mary's IVF procedure details including the name, address and photo of the surrogate and a page on her entire life history up till now.

After spending 3 minutes in reading everything thoroughly, she had made her decision. But she thought if John needed to be convinced, she might need that woman's address though and took a note of it. Then suddenly Mycroft spoke again, disturbing the silence in the room; "_ I do not think it is a wise idea. I won't agree to it."_

It took Sherly only a moment to understand that her brother had understood what she was thinking again for a second wondering about the mind reading thing, but recovered quickly enough to say, "_ if you can read my thoughts so perfectly, you would also know that if I decide something, I don't really care what anyone else think about._" She replied smugly.

He replied, _"But John won't accept for sure!_" He said in a failed effort as he saw her smirk. She then bid him goodbye and left, leaving him alone in a room thinking that now only the highest authority could stop her from doing something she would not be able to manage and regret later. Because he knew how much ever John would refuse in the beginning he would e convinced, because when Sherline Holmes was set upon on convincing someone about something she would achieve it, so much so that he doubted that if it had ears, even the mighty Himalayas* would too move an inch if she convinced it that she needed a sample from the soil it stood for the good of science! Luckily it didn't have ears… seriously thank God for small mercies!

So after a moment of thought, he dialed a number on his speed dial, the number of the person with highest authority on him and waited until someone spoke, and he said,

_"Mummy, Good morning. It is me Mycroft._"

* * *

_* Himalayas: It is the world's largest mountain range, containing many of the world's highest peaks including Mount Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, etc. :)_

* * *

**AN:** Hi again everyone! This is part-1 of the main surrogacy chapter; in the next chapter all the remaining questions will be answered. I just couldn't fit everything into this chapter as it would have become terribly long. But don't worry, I will update sooner than you think.

And once again I thank you all for the continued support. And I sincerely hope the story continues to be worth all your support. And please don't forget to tell me your views about this chapter. :)

Also I want to request everyone who reads this to tell me if some character seems 'out of character', that is other than the basic gender related stuff; because off late I was very upset when one of my favourite stories suddenly became too OOC for my taste. So I would certainly not want to do the same mistake. And if you guys think it is happening here; please do tell me, I will try correcting it as soon as it is possible for me.


	6. Surrogacy

29/5/2012: _Sorry, there was some tech problem and had to replace the chapter. It is essentially the same chapter-6, but with a few minor errors corrected._

* * *

**AN:** Hello my dearest readers, here is at last the chapter which I was planning to write from the beginning of this story…The chapter which explains, how Sherline Holmes became the surrogate mother of John and Mary's child. And it is a really long chapter, so don't tell me that I did not warn you beforehand. ;)

Also, the writing style is a little bit different in this chapter as there are many dialogues here. And I'm even worse at this style than my normal writing; so I apologize in advance for my mistakes.

_And please do remember that this story is still non beta'ed and non Brit-picked._

Happy reading! :)

**WARNING:** Mentions of communicable disease and a bit of its scientific technicality. More explanation regarding this is given in the end.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6**

**SURROGACY**

After her meeting with her brother, Sherline did not waste any time to reach home and tell her decision to John.

John: "Sherly, what non-sense are you talking about? I can't understand a word. I can only hear the words 'surrogate mother' and 'today itself'. Even after these many years, haven't you understood that unless you speak slowly, poor mere mortals like me cannot understand what you are speaking?" It seemed he had completely forgotten about the whole IVF issue due to the recent events.

Sherline: "Well technically that means you understood four words I spoke." But when she received a deadly glare from John, she thought correcting John's logic and grammar at this point would be unproductive. And so she continued, "John, don't be dull. What I'm trying to say is that, that I got a call from the IVF lab where you and Mary had given samples. And they told me that the next step of implanting it into the uterus of the surrogate mother, should be done immediately." Before she could continue John broke in to her sentence.

John: "What? Oh God, I had totally forgotten about it." He sighed mournfully and continued, "We both wanted to have a baby so much… And now see what has happened… I have no one. Life has become one big terrible mess..." John, who now remembered the whole issue suddenly, was filled with sudden barrage of guilt and grief.

Sherline felt guilty that she had brought tears to her friend's eyes again. But well, it had to be done and she couldn't back away now; there was no time. So she ploughed ahead.

Sherline: "John, I can understand that we cannot bring Mary back, but we surely can bring yours and Mary baby into this world, right? And we have to hurry John; they have to do the next step within 5 days for it to be completely successful after that the chances of failure are more. And they had called me yesterday, which means today is the fourth day, John."

John: "I really don't know what to think now. But anyways, what I can't understand is that why they called you when until yesterday you were dead for 3 years."After a moment's pause he added, "Oh right, you attended Harry's phone. But you know what Sherly I'm too depressed to even lecture you how inappropriate your act was, so just leave me alone. I don't want to bring a poor baby into this world of misery and for it to feel as miserable as me when someone he or she loves leaves them alone and goes. No, I don't want that for my child."

Sherline: "John, please listen to me. You are saying all this in a moment of grief, but when after few years, you realize that you have lost the only living memory of Mary, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to forgive yourself. So again I tell you John, come on, get ready and let's both go to the lab and get the procedure finished."

John was by now staring at some far away spot, likely very deep in thought. After few more minutes of tense silence, he said, "I can't think straight now, but I guess what you said about keeping Mary's memory alive feels right to me. But I'm still not sure how just for my selfishness, bringing a baby into this bad world and moreover who would never get the love of a mother, would be any good."

Sherline: "John, now you are just being dramatic! The world will always be that way; we can't do anything about it. And about being bereft of mother's love, well I understand that it is the greatest form of love but this baby will have so many others who would love it, that it won't miss a mother it never knew. And think of this John, if Mary could see you, wouldn't she want you to give her baby a chance of life?" Sherline knew the only thing that will work on John at the moment would be emotionally manipulating him regarding Mary's memories and thoughts. She wanted her friend to be happy for as long as he lived and if a little manipulation was doing something good, she found no harm in it.

But sadly her plan misfired when John suddenly turned an accusing glare at her and asked, "How would you know that? You have not met Mary even once in her lifetime." But when Sherly suddenly turned away, trying to avoid his eyes, he understood.

"You have met her, haven't you? You were stalking us without our knowledge. And Oh God, she was right then, wasn't she? When she said she saw you that day at Tesco and later another day on the street; it was you, wasn't it? And oh god I told poor Mary that she might be hallucinating… that the stress was getting to her. And I was blaming myself, thinking that it was because I was telling her too many stories about our adventures. Seriously God, I should have known… I really am out of words now Sherly, I really am…"

Sherly who by then felt quite ashamed and very deservedly at that, decided that, that was a conversation (or well an argument on John's part) for another time. At that moment what was important was the baby and not whether she was or was not stalking them. So she tried again in a desperate tone; "John, we can talk about that later. But since now you know that I know how Mary would think, I want you to concentrate on the things I said earlier…that is about bringing the baby into this world, because John, we seriously are running out of time."

Finally after few minutes of thoughtful silence, John wiped his eyes and turned towards Sherly with a determined look on his face. And Sherly knew half her battle was won already. But sadly, the remaining part, about her wanting to be the surrogate mother was the trickier one.

John, then said with a determined voice, "Let's go Sherly. Let's go to the lab and finish the procedure and give my baby life."

After a small pause where Sherly was waiting for John to catch up on the part that they needed to call the surrogate mother at this point; John finally caught up.

John: "Oh hell, I need to call that woman before we go the lab. I hope she is free. My God, I'm so callous, ain't I? I'm asking her to undergo such an uncomfortable procedure at a moment's notice. And what would happen if she isn't free? Everything will go to waste then. God… why do all the troubles in the world come to me and that too in wholesale packages?" He moaned ruefully at his fate.

Sherline: "About that thing, I wanted to ask you whether I could be the surrogate mother, John." She added quite sheepishly.

John: "Are you joking? Because this seriously is quite a bit not good, Sherly." When he didn't receive any witty come-back, John was taken aback that Sherly actually wanted to be the surrogate mother. He did not even know what to think or how to react in such an unfathomable situation.

Sherly knew John was flabbergasted on hearing her request, but the time was running out. So she thought she will aid him in his thinking process.

"I know that you are thinking that I'm not serious about this, John. But believe me, I very much am. I have even given serious thought to this and found that it is the most practical idea, since I will be here with you and you can monitor the growth of the baby during all the stages of the pregnancy. Also you know me better than any other surrogate you have chosen; which means I do not have any serious diseases or other infections that I can transfer to the baby unlike somebody else. Also you don't have to pay me! See, there are so many advantages!"

John who was so stunned suddenly scoffed when she said that he did not have to pay her to be the surrogate and said, "Sherly saying that I do not have to pay you to be the surrogate is the height of the 'bit not good things' you have said till now. And saying stuff like these is in no way going to endear me to the idea that I should allow you to be the surrogate. And Sherly, this is not an experiment that you can dump in the bin if the results are not in your favour; it is pregnancy and it is bloody complicated! Your body and mind will not be in your control like you always like to have them; they will start to have demands on their own. And you can't ignore them like you always do. You will have to sleep and eat regularly and you can't just run off behind some criminal at any minute like you always do. There will be so many restrictions, which I'm sure you will never agree to. And then later, will regret the whole idea. So sorry if I don't take you seriously when you say you want to be the surrogate mother, when you just came back to life a day ago." He added the last line with a sarcastic laugh.

Sherly who had been listening to John's monologue like it was a horror story, had kept her outward look as impassive as only Sherline Holmes can be. But inside she was thinking about everything John was telling; about all those horrific things she would have to do if she becomes pregnant like sleeping and eating nutritious food regularly! Truthfully when she made the decision to be the surrogate mother to John's baby, she never actually thought of how tough a job it is to be a carrying mother. She had just thought of the sadness in her friend's face, both now and all those times he had visited her grave. She had caused so much grief to him… and even though it was for his sake, she still felt guilty. So she thought her offering herself to be the surrogate mother so that John can always be near his baby will be a good idea.

But now after hearing everything John was saying, she was a little scared of all the unpredictable factors in this. But then, Sherline Holmes always did like unpredictable things; now didn't she? And mainly because predictable things were so mundane and boring for her. And moreover she never backed away from a challenge and now when her own body would be the challenge, how could she miss that chance?

Well, these were the things her practical brain was saying to her. But somewhere in her so called proverbial 'heart' part of the brain, she knew she would do it anyway, no matter what the risk was… Because she really wanted her best friend to be happy again.

But here in the real world outside Sherly's brain, John thought that he succeeded for once in his lifetime to make Sherly understand that what she was trying to do was stupid. And he was currently dialing the number of the other surrogate when Sherly came back to real world. So she suddenly panicked and tried to snatch the phone out of John's hands. And before John could yell at her, she blurted out, "She has Hepatitis B!"

But John just glared at her disbelieving and said, "Seriously Sherly, just because you want me to me to choose you, doesn't mean you can accuse some poor soul of such a deadly disease! Because I have seen her medical reports before choosing her as a surrogate and she was completely healthy!"

Sherline: "John, I may be a sociopath and a very high functioning one at that, but even I'm not that callous to say somebody has such an infection without proof." She paused for a dramatic effect and added, "Her currently 3 month old boyfriend is HBsAg* positive. And her vaccination history is more than 15 years old and she hasn't taken a booster dose since then because of the cost and she also didn't think it was that important. True that immunity can work upto many more years after vaccination, but she being continuously pregnant makes her weaker. And what you saw were her 4 months old medical reports, that is before she acquired the infection. And her latest reports show her to be positive since it was done especially to check for this; ofcourse without her knowledge, that is." She added smugly.

John was going to ask that how the hell she knew so much about the would-be surrogate when she did not even know about a day ago that such a procedure was going to be done, but her ending sentence and the smug grin answered his question. Ofcourse if someone could take your blood even without you knowing about that, could only be one Mr. Mycroft Holmes's handiwork.

So he said, "I really should have known that when you left so early in the morning to meet your arrogant prat of a brother to discuss your so called resurrection,when you were always in constant touch with him throughout these 3 years. That it must be for something like this sinister. And my God, he has all of mine and Mary's medical reports, hasn't he? No, seriously I don't even know why I'm surprised about that after all these years." He sighed resignedly.

Sherline smirked and said, "Anyway, it was a good thing that you chose her because now because of you we have found out she has the infection and she would be prevented from spreading it to other babies."

John in the meanwhile understood where this was leading now... that he did not have any further arguments to deter Sherly from choosing to do something she would regret later. But then suddenly he thought about Mycroft, because he was sure that he will definitely stop her from doing this folly. But he also knew that calling Mycroft in front of Sherly would not work, so he thought some acting would do some good. So saying that he needed some more time in private to think and decide on the matter, he left to his room upstairs.

…

After sometime John came down with a resigned look on his face and said to Sherly who was perched on the couch as usual that they both should leave now otherwise they would be late and the lab will be closed.

That Sherly was surprised beyond words, was an understatement. She had ofcourse deduced that John was going to call Mycroft to dissuade her from the so called mistake; John was a terrible actor. And she thought she would need to give him the same dialogue that she had given Mycroft earlier, that no matter what anyone thought, she would do as she pleases and all that crap. But she never expected John to come down so calmly and ask her to come with him to the lab without any more arguments.

And all this meant only one thing, Mycroft for some reason had agreed with her plan. But then on second thoughts, it actually meant that her parents had agreed with her plan. Because, ofcourse Mycroft being such a Mummy's pet, would have immediately called her to tattle about silly old Sherly...

But then Sherly decided that she would solve that mystery later because as now she had an even more important thing to do - to go with John and get things done. And like she already knew, a black car was waiting for them downstairs to take them both to the clinic.

* * *

*_**HBsAg** _: Hepatitis B surface antigen. If it is present in the blood, the person is called HBsAg positive, meaning that the person is infected. And the infection spreads through all the bodily fluids from one person to another, when the infection is active. It also spreads from mother to the child during child birth. For more accurate details, please refer some medical encyclopedia or Wikipedia. :)

* * *

**AN:** From here onwards, the story will be episodic and not like one huge continuous story, like it was so far. You can expect a barrage of such individual chapters in the following days, sometimes 2 or more chapters in one day. And no, I have not written them all already. But I will write them soon enough; mostly because I'm running out of time to finish this. So again, sorry in advance for any inconvenience that would be caused because of that.

_And yeah, don't forget to tell me what you thought about this chapter. If you find that any of the explanation, either scientific or emotional was not clear, please do tell me. I will surely try to make it more clear. :)_


	7. Mrs Hudson's gift

**AN:** Just a small chapter. Not much happens here. But Chapter 8 is on its way.

Non Beta'ed and Non Brit picked as usual.

**CHAPTER - 7**

**MRS HUDSON'S GIFT**

**After four weeks:**

Saying that Sherly was being bored to death would be an understatement. She was under strict orders to not move about too much in the house, let alone go out and run after few nasty killers. Moreover Lestrade, according to her was being his usual useless self and was deliberately not giving her any interesting case. She had petulantly messaged him those exact words with a little extra abusive words added each time for variety's sake for approximately hundred and eighty nine times up-till now.

...

When they had come back from the clinic that day, John had been the one to tell them all the shocking but good news. Mrs. Hudson who first thought he was joking, later was so overjoyed that she had almost sprained her hip again. And even Harry had been very happy and had hugged both her brother and even Sherly, much against her petulant grumbles.

Lestrade who was waiting for a chance to 'discuss' the sudden death of one notorious sniper, Sebastian Moran, was left totally speechless when John had repeated, by then his favourite rote again. But when Lestrade came out of his shock, he just awkwardly patted Sherly's shoulder and said, "This is really very nice of you, Sherline. But I hope atleast you won't mess this one up." Which ofcourse earned him an icy cold stare from her.

...

She had been advised to take bed rest atleast for 4-5 weeks. After which she could move around but was advised against any strenuous tasks, as this was delicate than normal pregnancy. And Sherly as expected completely ignored the part of bed rest but thought she could atleast stay indoors for few weeks for John's sake. Also thankfully her morning sickness had not started yet but she knew that it was just around the corner. She could already feel certain changes in her moods and if she observed carefully, which she ofcourse always did, she was sure that she was slowly putting on some weight too.

Sherly knew that the first three months of pregnancy or the first trimester as it is medically called was the most important stage of pregnancy. It is when the major development of the foetus occurs. And therefore it is also the crucial stage at which, if one is not careful, there's most chances of birth defects to occur.

But knowing the importance was not enough to appease her raging mind. She was craving for the adrenaline rush she got from solving a nice tough triple murder or something like that. But here she was, annoyingly reminded every three hours to eat or drink some or other boring food by Mrs. Hudson, who was under orders from John to keep an eye on her.

She had already solved all the petty murder and theft cases that appeared in the newspapers each day. And to her utter frustration, it seemed that not even many boring cases were being reported, like they used to be before. It seemed like without Moriarty, the whole criminal world was going to rot!

And now her boredom had reached to such a high level that sometimes she even deigned to call the officer in-charge and tell them who the actual criminal was; doing their job for them from her living room. But well not before she had insulted his or her intelligence to the maximum of her ability. And that sadly in turn would more often than not lead to angry calls from Lestrade and then John (if she did not pick Lestrade's annoying call).

...

Well, now it seemed that poor Sherly did not have anything to do except watching crap television with Mrs. Hudson during the day and then with John at night times. Since there was no new data to be added to her website, even the internet was utterly boring to her. And even her brilliant plan to start a new set of interesting experiments with a few cyanide compounds was expertly thwarted by John and co, plunging her into eternal boredom; well according to her atleast.

But yes, there was also the gift which Mrs. Hudson had given her few weeks ago, but she was not even going to speak about them. They were a couple books on pregnancy; 'A pregnant mother's pass times', 'What to expect when you are an expecting mother' and 'Healthy mother makes a healthy baby!'. Sherly had been livid when Mrs. Hudson had given her those pedantic books, but John, the ever goody boy John, had thanked her for the book, well after apologizing for so called 'childish behaviour' of Sherly's, much to her indignation.

...

But now, after four weeks of futilely harassing Lestrade for cases, watching non-stop meaningless drivel on telly and even losing all hope that John would ever give her his gun; she decided she will deign herself to atleast have a look at those books.

And that, right there, was going to be the root cause of all the worries in the world for poor John; he just didn't know that yet.

* * *

**AN:** I know it was a small chapter, but don't worry the next chapter is in the finishing stage and on its way to be served.

And in the meanwhile, if you are a Mycroft fan, you can check out **'THE UMBRELLA MAN'** from my profile. (OR go here: www dot fanfiction dot net/s/8167786/1/THE_UMBRELLA_MAN . Replace the dot with symbol. ) . It was actually supposed to be a chapter for this story, but somehow became too Mycroft-centric to be posted here. It is for now a Mycroft kid fic. Do give it a try and tell me your comments there.

And as far this chapter is concerned, I know there is nothing much to comment... But I would like to take this opportunity to ask the readers who have not reviewed till now, for their comments. I have now enabled ANONYMOUS comments for those who don't have an account here to review. So I hope to hear from you, well hoping it is going to be a constructive criticism even if not all good. Because if it is going to be completely rotten tomatoes, I'm running away now itself! hehe

And yeah, one more thing, I'm very happy to note that quite a lot of readers from many different countries are following this fic every time I post. So, thank you all so much for sticking with this story. :) This site is surely improving my geography knowledge if not anything else! :D

**DISCLAIMER**: By the way book titles are all made up by me, err at least I think so... So if books with these exact names are out there in the market by any chance; well, they simply are not mine then. :P


	8. Morning Sickness

**AN: **Hi I'm back like I promised yesterday. This is a lighthearted but long chapter. I thought of splitting it into two, but then one would be too small and other big. So I let it be as one big chapter itself. Anyway I have drawn a line in between to help you catch a break. But don't know how helpful that is going to be...

Well anyway hope you have a fun time reading it. And yeah don't forget to review. :)

_**NOTE:** There was Chapter-7 : 'Mrs Hudson's gift' after Chapter-6: 'Surrogacy', which was posted yesterday. Just wanted to inform anyone who missed it. :)_

* * *

**CHAPTER - 8**

**MORNING SICKNESS**

**After six weeks:**

Sherly was well into her 6th week of pregnancy, when the most dreaded morning sickness kicked in. The name of which by the way was genuinely a misnomer as it never stuck to its timings.

Sherly it seemed was always nauseated. Atleast that is what John and Mrs. Hudson thought. While the reality may be slightly different... Sherly may or may not be doing a fine act of being nauseated every time someone offered her some boring nutritious food to eat... She ofcourse would deny it until her dying breath though.

...

But then there were some genuine moments when she actually felt terribly sick. And more often than not, it was triggered by the smell of John's flavoursome tea. She really didn't have a heart to say John that she had deduced the reason long ago when everytime John wondered what her trigger could be.

John would help her with her vomiting bouts in the morning by holding the stray strands of her hair (which had escaped her clumsily tied knot) from falling onto her face. He then always patted her back to ease her discomfort and gave her clean water to cleanse her palate. He would then proceed to mother her by offering a variety of food and drinks at every possible chance he got, saying that she must be dehydrated.

...

John was always considerate person and everyone who knew him as a doctor would say without an ounce of doubt that he was born to be one. But now it seemed he had become even more so. It seemed now as though he had become an over-considerate, over-protective daddy bear with an alternate split personality of a Mother hen pitching in sometimes!

Sherline ofcourse was quite annoyed by this attitude of his, but then she bore it... well atleast to an extent, because he really did not seem to be aware of his attitude change. But when he offered to stay at home to care of her instead of going to work, she had enough of it. She was almost about to yell at him, but somehow stopped at the right time seeing his genuine concerned face. She then tactfully convinced John that they needed money for all this and also touched his doctor's heart by telling him that all his dear patients would miss their dear doctor. Even though the last part was said in jest, John somehow seemed quite convinced by her explanation; making her smirk with evil satisfaction. She revelled at her success in rightly deducing a way to convince John. John may be a simple, honest and humble man, but he surely was proud his profession!

But Sherly's problems didn't end with succeeding to send John to work. Because as soon as he left, Mrs. Hudson had taken over his job like some change of guard!

And that was the first time she thought of the question; which later it seemed had passed through everyone's mind atleast once from then on, with only slight differences in the wordings, depending whom the subject was. The ubiquitous question was, "Why the hell did I agree to this?"

* * *

But saying that the pregnancy sickness was totally useless was unfair. It did have its own advantages... Like for example say chasing away annoying guests?

...

Mycroft had been out of station for few weeks now. He didn't want to confront her as soon as things had been finalized. He thought meeting her a little later would be good.

Even though he had opposed to Sherly's idea at first, the things his mother had said to him that day on phone had convinced him to allow it to take place. But he still had his doubts as to whether this was all going to completely successful. Because he knew his sister and somehow he doubted that she would ever mature enough to be a mother to that baby than being an over–grown child herself.

But he surely was in for a surprise.

...

When Mycroft at last decided to meet Sherly, it was on a fine Monday morning. He came bearing gifts from both from his parents and himself.

It was John who opened the door when Sherly who had recently been using every chance to move around the house, refused to move an inch from the sofa. She had just muttered something that sounded like, 'tutti-frutti' or 'fatty Crofty' under her breath. But when John found that it was Mycroft on the other side, he thought it must have been the latter and gave a snort.

Mycroft it seemed as usual had guessed it must be something Sherly had said that made John snort right at his face like that; just gave an exaggerated eye roll for John's benefit. He then came inside and settled himself on what was supposedly the 'John's arm chair' in the house. On which Sherly who was still lying on the sofa staring at the ceiling said, "Next time dear brother bring a plush chair with you when you come here. I don't think John's chair can bear it anymore. It is falling apart in the seams."

Mycroft just smiled thinking his thought about his kid sister still being an over-grown child was true after all. He simply said, "I would certainly bring a new chair and a new sofa too dear sister. After all your flat would certainly need new furniture to fit you if the baby keeps up this growth rate."

Mycroft was rarely ever been wrong in his life. So when he was expecting Sherly to scoff at him saying that he was still the fatter of the two, he was almost stunned when his playful younger sister sat up suddenly and put her hands protectively onto her belly and almost snarled, " Crofty don't you dare say anything about my baby!"

For a moment it was hard to say who was more stunned; Mycroft, John or Sherly herself! Because none of them had expected her to react in such a manner. Everyone knew that Mycroft was just joking and was not intending to say anything bad about the baby who was actually only the size of a small berry by then. Sherly then felt suddenly ashamed at her misplaced show of her protectiveness. Ofcourse once everybody were back to their senses, they all knew enough medical science to know that it was the result of raging pregnancy hormones in her body. It seemed no matter how much one had evolved from the animals, the innate animal instinct to protect one's offspring from perceived threat was always there and at times like these even though quite misplaced, it was unavoidable.

...

The awkward moment was broken when Sherly tried to snatch the gifts from her brother's hands saying, "Were you planning on giving this to me or did you just bring it to show–off?" No one was expecting a reply and so silence remained although the atmosphere was more relaxed now.

Sherly immediately knew which was whose gift. Mycroft ofcourse had given her a made to order tin of chocolates and biscuits with all the nutrition added in the right amount to aid a pregnant mother. She had no doubt that they were made keeping in mind that the main taste of the product wasn't changed due to the nutritious additives. It also had a card detailing the product's names and a number for ordering them. She also had no doubt that whoever these bakers were; they were under strict order to deliver her whatever she likes whenever she asks with no questions or for that matter money asked.

As a token of thank you, she just opened a box and popped one delicious looking chocolate directly into her mouth without bothering to ask anyone else, earning a head-shake from John and slight hint of smile from Mycroft.

...

Her father's gift was an exquisite leather bound diary with her name imprinted in gold letters on it. And an equally expensive pen set to go with it. Her father was always intuitive in that way. He somehow always knew when she wanted to be left alone and when she wanted to be around company. Like for every daughter her father was her hero. He may not be like the hero John wanted her to be, but her dad was hero in his own sense...

Sherly knew this gift was meant for all the times she would want to be alone but still have company. A personal journal was the only thing that could accomplish such a complex goal.

...

Next was her mother's gift. And admittedly her favourite because it was exactly what she wanted then. Her dearest mother had given her a way to alleviate her now seemingly eternal boredom.

Her mother had sent her a temperature controlled transport box containing a whole set of non- virulent bacteria* and other microscopic organisms. Some colonies even seemed liked they were glowing...

It also had a small note along with it.

**_"Dear Sherie,_**

**_Me and your dad are extremely happy with your decision and fully support it. But then I also know how much bored you must be because of all the restrictions. So I'm sending you few of the nice ones I had lying in my lab. There are also few phosphorescing* ones in the set. Thought a little bit of glitter and glamour would brighten your days._**

**_Love Mummy"_**

Sherly gave a hearty chuckle at her mother's geeky sense of humour. She had got her experimenting genes from her mother, no doubt. Her mother was a much respected microbiologist. She had been a visiting professor to many of the country's prestigious institutions for many years. Though at present she was dedicating all her time for research.

...

Sherly then suddenly realised that both John and Mycroft's eyes were glued on her. And she knew that her brother could read every thought that had passed through her mind unlike her friend.

She was extremely annoyed by that. And for a moment she pondered whether this was how other people like Sally and Anderson felt, when she said their secrets out aloud. Well if she had been somebody else, she would have done a thorough purview of her thoughts right then and would have mended her ways. But then, she was not somebody else. She was Sherline Holmes and she didn't have time for all that petty nonsense sentiments. So she conveniently deleted that thought then and there and proceeded to plan revenge on her brother for deducing her.

...

Sherly then got up suddenly such that she was almost directly above Mycroft and pretended to feel sick. Mycroft's whose reflexes were extremely good as it was supposed to be for a man in such a dangerous position like his, moved back suddenly, almost hitting John who was right behind him with a tray containing three cups of tea. The whole thing toppled and Mycroft's three thousand pound suit and trousers were spared merely by an inch!

Sherly then played innocent and said, "Oh! I'm so sorry brother. I hope your new suit is not spoiled. But you know this morning sickness, right? It doesn't seem to mind the time or place. It just comes when it finds something very annoying. Anything could be a trigger you know? Sometimes even few annoying people can trigger it, it seems." She batted her eyelashes innocently.

Mycroft who ofcourse knew exactly what she was doing, gave her a mildly irritated huff and eye-roll and left the flat after apologizing to John for the mishap. But he surely had a genuine smile on his face as he descended the seventeen steps of 221B as he thought that no matter how much she changed because of this pregnancy, it seemed there would be a part in her that would never grow up. And he would always cherish that playful little sister part of her.

Inside the flat, John just huffed and started picking up the broken cup pieces from the floor. He then said in a straight voice, "You almost actually ruined his coat you know?". He paused dramatically and then added,"Remind me not to annoy you when I'm wearing a nice shirt, okay? Because unlike your rich prat of a brother, I can't afford get a new one each time your morning sickness feels like getting triggered because of me."

For a moment there was complete silence and then both of them burst out laughing so loudly that even Mycroft could hear it outside on the street.

* * *

*** Non-virulent bacteria: **Harmless strains of bacteria which do not cause any disease.

*** Phosphorescing** /**Phosphorescent**: Glowing due to certain chemical compounds present in them.

* * *

**AN: **_Your thoughts? o.O _

_Also if you guys have any prompts regarding any craving that you think Sherline would likely have, well other than interesting murders; you can tell me. I will try to incorporate it if I can, or if not, I will post all the interesting prompts at the end of the story (which isn't far behind), so that whoever wants to write them, they can._


	9. An ode to Mary

**AN:** Dedicated to the canonical Mary Watson nee Morstan. Because if she was worthy enough to be loved by Dr. John Hamish Watson then she must have been awesome in her own right.

* * *

**CHAPTER-9**

**AN ODE TO MARY**

**Few weeks later:**

Sherly was extremely excited that in about three more weeks she would be into the second trimester where she could regain back her currently lost freedom. Well atleast to an extent one can be free with a rapidly growing belly, that is.

...

Life at Baker Street had settled into a routine by then. During the day, Sherly would do experiments on the microbes which her mom had gifted her for some time and then join Mrs. Hudson for crap telly watching till 8 or 9 in the evening. Or till Mrs. Hudson's herbal soothers would come into action and lull her into an early sleep.

John taking Sherly' earlier joke about needing more money seriously, was now relentlessly working as many shifts at Bart's as he could get hold of. This even though meant less molly-coddling hours for Sherly; also meant more hours of boredom and loneliness... She would never accept to that until her dying breath, but it was true... Blame it on crazy pregnancy hormones or anything, but Sherline Holmes was starting to crave the very human company she once loathed.

It seems now-a-days she missed everybody... her parents, her childhood house, thrill of chases and so on, to the extent that she even missed Anderson's stupidity sometimes! Yes, she surely was on the verge of losing it.

So saying that Sherly was secretly praying to the God she didn't even believe existed, to fast forward the rest of the days so that her second trimester can start as soon as possible, wouldn't be a complete lie.

* * *

*****o***o***o*****

Now almost everyone who knew Sherly closely, knew that if she was truly addicted to one thing, it was neither smoking nor her 7% solutions, but her addiction to her insatiable need for information.

She had the compulsion to glean every possible information about everyone she knew. And thankfully most of the times people around her were so simple that a mere thorough observation was enough to know everything about them.

But at times where her observational power was not enough to gather the complete information, she used her other special methods. Like for example, her power to find the most strategic position to join in a conversation in which mostly she is not supposed to be involved. Or as people generally called it- 'eavesdropping'. Then came her power to successfully multitask her job by outsourcing some free minded people to gather information in exchange for some sparse change. Or in simpler terms what everyone who knew her termed it - 'spying with the help of her homeless network'. Then last but not at all the least, her ability to borrow articles from others in expertly covert manner mostly with the intention of never returning the article to the rightful owner. And this last skill was the one she thoroughly enjoyed using... especially on certain annoying Detective Inspectors and even more annoying rich prat omniscient persons she was compelled to call big brothers.

But in certain conditions, even when it did not involve the most irritating people in her personal life or some clever minded thief, she still was compelled to use that particular skill of hers to glean information; like stealing somebody's personal diary for example...

...

John had shifted all of his and Mary's things from the house they shared to Baker Street few days back. And Sherly was sure that it also contained Mary's personal diary, from the way john was subconsciously trying to hide it from Sherly. And Sherly being her inquisitive self wanted to get a hand on that.

But being fair to Sherly, she really had been waiting to know more about Mary for a very long time now... almost for around 2 years or let us say from the time one Mary Morstan entered one Dr. John Hamish Watson's life to be exact.

Sherly wanted to know everything one could possibly know about Mary. She wanted to know the person whom her dearest friend had chosen as his life partner. She ofcourse had got timely information from Mycroft's minions at monthly intervals; but those never seemed to be enough. She had even made two not very successful attempts at stalking her herself.

She wanted to know what made Mary so different from all of John previous legion of girlfriends. She wanted to know everything about the person who made her only friend forget about her...

If she was somebody else, she would have categorized the odd sensation she was feeling somewhere left of her mediastinum* as what lay people generally called as Jealousy. She ofcourse brushed the feeling off as some stupid imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain.

But the truth was that, that she had mixed feelings about the whole Mary affair. On one hand, she was extremely happy that John had reverted from the suicidal mess he was, to a relatively stable man just after few months of meeting Mary... But on the other hand there was some sort of untold fear which said that their friendship would never be the same again.

She had always wondered what would have happened if Sherly had still been living along with John? Whether he would have still left her alone and moved on with her... Because no matter what anyone wanted to call her- selfish, possessive or co-dependent... what she truly was at heart, was a small girl who did not want to lose her first and only real friend she had whole her life. The problem was not with her willing to share her friend, but with others who never really understood their pure friendship. Who always saw her as a threat which was supposed to be eliminated from John's life first and foremost. All of John's previous girlfriends had that exact line of thought and she was sure that Mary too would have been no different.

So even if it was just to confirm her pre conceived assumptions, Sherly had to get hold of Mary's diary; atleast her past 2 years diary.

...

But then what even Sherline Holmes got wrong sometimes was that, that for every rule, there was an exception. And it seemed John had at last found that perfect exception in Mary. Because when Sherly snuck into John's room and read the bundle of diaries which was so called 'hidden' on the top (roof) of the cupboard, her whole perspective about Mary changed.

...

Mary, it seemed thankfully did not have the dramatic flourish in writing like John did. She seemingly, according to Sherline, did not make drinking tea in the morning into a poetic ode to one of the favourite beverages of the English like John often did in his boring blogs. Because Sherly refreshingly found that Mary was, even if not to her extent, but still was a stickler to the basic facts. Her diary was more like a completed 'to- do list'. She had just entered important happenings of each day. And if there was none on a particular day, it seemed she did not even bother to write anything that day. Atleast that was what Sherly was gleaning through all her writings.

So Sherly did not bother to read through each day's entry as her sparse words had already given her a clear picture of Mary's personality. Sherly decided that no matter what Mary might have thought of her if she hadn't disappeared for those three years, at least one thing was clear that she had loved John to the greatest extent possible. And somehow knowing that alone seemed to lessen all the ill feelings she might have had towards her, bringing an unknown smile on to Sherly's lips.

Then just as she was going to replace the books back to its hiding place, a small sealed envelope fell out of one of them. And strangely it was addressed to one Ms Sherline Holmes.

Sherly was curious to know why somebody, especially somebody who had never seen her would address a letter to her, knowing that she was not alive anymore. So she eagerly broke the seal and read through the letter. And from then on if someone ever had asked Sherline to name one person who had made an impression on her through a single letter, she would say it was one Mrs. Mary Watson without a moment of hesitation.

The letter:

"_Dear Ms Holmes,_

_ Well I am hoping that you are Sherline Holmes since you are the one reading this letter... Because if not, then you have no business going through my personal diary and reading through a sealed letter clearly addressed to Ms. Sherline Holmes. _

_So anyway hoping that it is actually Sherline Holmes who is reading this letter, I am beginning the letter by not asking you how you are doing or other pleasantries like that. Because obviously if you were fine then you would not have been hiding and making people believe that you were dead, now would you? __So I'm coming straight to the reason why I'm writing this letter... It is just that I wanted to say, that even though John believes I am imagining you, I know the person I saw today was the real you and not a figment of my imagination. _

_At first when I saw the tall man following me few months back, I did not know it was you immediately. It is only when I reached home and thought about it, I realized that it could be you. And that day when I told John he had almost convinced me that it was my imagination and not you dressed as a man ._

_But today when I saw you at Tesco, I was sure that it was you. I may not have ever seen you personally before, but John's colourful descriptions of you seem to be enough for anyone to know and understand you as if they had personally known you all their lives._

_So I, Mary Watson am writing this letter to request you, Sherline Holmes, my husband's most dearest and nearest friend, to please come back. I know you are doing all this for a purpose, and even though I have not asked John to explain me all the details regarding your so called death, I am sure that you are doing all this for a good cause. But I just want to know whether that cause is worthy enough to sacrifice the happiness of your friend? Because from what I have heard and now seen, you seem to reciprocate his loyal friendship to an equal extent. _

_Now if you are thinking that I have somehow taken your place in his life and that he has completely forgotten you, then that is the farthest from the truth you could have ever been. A 'Sherline Holmes' shaped hole will be always empty in my John's heart no matter how much I try to fill that space with my love. I may be his love of his life but I know for sure that you will always be his most dearest friend. Nobody can replace you in his life Ms. Holmes...nobody._

_ There is even that particular lively gleam in his eyes which can be seen only when he joyfully recounts your dangerous adventures. I am not saying that he is not happy now; what I am trying to say is that he is not happy to the extent he can be happy now..._

_So I sincerely request you to please come back and announce that you are alive to John. And if you want, I can see to that we shift back to Baker Street and may be if Mrs. Hudson allows, we could even stay in 221 C flat so that you both can continue your adventures just like it was before._

_Well, as a concluding line, all I want to say that I will never be a hindrance to your wonderful friendship and you that will be always welcome into our lives._

_Yours truly,_

_Mrs. Mary Watson._

_PS: In case you are wondering what I was thinking by placing this letter addressed to you in my personal diary, I will just say that I have learnt enough about 'inquisitive' nature from John. So in this way there would be no harm to your cause and my sanity."_

...

That was also the day Sherline Holmes allocated a whole new room to the unsolved puzzle called Mary Watson in her mind palace.

* * *

**Mediastinum*: **Part in the thoraxic cavity where the heart is located.

* * *

**AN:** Sorry if the chapter was sub-par or disoriented. It might be mostly because I seem to be too sleepy most of the times recently. Caught some bug I guess. :/

Well anyway if you feel it is a totally crap chapter, please feel free to say so. I will try taking it down and repost it with better editing someday later.

So your thoughts? :)

**PS**: Can you suggest me a nice image for this fic? I seem to have run out of my imagination regarding that... o.o


	10. Back to chase! Part1

**AN: **Hi everyone! This Chapter will be posted in two parts. I'm still writing the second part and will post it as soon as I finish it. :)

And yeah, this Chapter and next is for my friend; user name:**MrsCumberbatch**. She had asked for a chapter with John's POV and well, here it is! :)

**NOTE:** I just wanted to say that sometimes I make minor grammatical and sentence corrections after I have posted the story... Nothing major; just small things which strike me only after I have posted the chapter.

Well, I'm saying this now because if you have read the previous chapter on the same day I posted it, you may find that the letter Mary wrote to Sherly is a bit different. The essence of the matter is the same but I have just changed a few sentences in that which seemed to fit better. :)

* * *

**CHAPTER 10**

**BACK TO CHASE!**

**PART-1**

Few weeks later:

The fact that Sherly had entered into her second trimester was announced loud and clear to everyone who knew her... err literally. Because at exactly 12 AM on one fine Monday night in London, everybody whose phones Sherly could get her hands on, went off with an alarm singing, "Woohoo! Freedom at last!" customised in a funny version of their own voice.

Oh yes; Sherly surely did know her way around the modern wonders of computers and mobile phones much to the ire of everybody whose phones blared at the most inconvenient times possible and of those poor souls who lost their sleep...

...

Lestrade, who had been in deep sleep, perfectly happy snugly cuddling with his new girlfriend; all complete with kitty and bunny printed pajamas, projecting a picture of complete family bliss; was rudely awakened by that creepy sounding voice. But his sleep addled mind did not seem to make anything of it.

But his girlfriend who had unfortunately just gotten up to drink some water, clearly heard it and asked him: "Greg, if you didn't want to cuddle up; you should have told me so. Actually you know what? I should have known that you being a tough detective inspector and all, you would find all this snuggling and cuddling in Pyjamas quite silly... I'm sorry. I really don't want to you to think I am the smothering kind." She paused for a second awkwardly not knowing what to do next.

Then she added diffidently, "May be I should go..." And only when he heard the last part, Lestrade actually got his wits back. Then sat up suddenly and then cried out, "What? What are you talking about? I didn't say those things. I really don't know how that horrible thing came into my phone! And my singing is not as bad as that! And hey, you are not going anywhere; do you understand? You cannot leave me; and especially not because of something as silly as this." Saying so, he pulled her back into the bed and hugged her from behind.

And just when a somewhat calm silence had settled in, he snarled with realization. "Sherline Holmes! This must surely be her handiwork. I'm not going to leave her! That phone stealing, technological whiz git! I am never going to give her any case from now on; no matter how many threatening messages she sends me. Humph!"

His girlfriend who was still unsurely leaning back into his embrace suddenly felt a lot better on hearing that and started to chuckle. And it was so infectious that both of them started to laugh out loud at their stupid predicament. He then pulled down to a lying position and snuggled into her saying, "And Hey I may be a big bad Scotland Yard DI and all, but I simply like to cuddle and snuggle with my girlfriend... so what the hell, sue me!" Earning another round of merry chuckles from her.

...

In another part of London, John was at the Bart's giving a bad news to an old bossy lady regarding her husband's condition; when the alarm went off. It earned him one of the dirtiest glares a 75 year old lady could give. And she may or may not have also said some unsavoury words because John didn't hear a word after the alarm went off. He was too busy plotting revenge on his best friend all the way back to his cabin.

He was thinking that he should look up on the internet and find out the most boringly nutritious diet and replace them with all the delicious cookies in the flat! He decided that a 'healthy diet torture' was the best when one Sherline Holmes was concerned.

But before all that, he was going to call her up and yell at her first.

...

Mycroft on the other hand was on a totally different hemisphere of earth, when he heard his own completely mutilated voice singing the wretched words: "Woohoo! Freedom at last!" And as expected, he was in an important meeting. This time it was with the Nobel peace prize laureate and newly elected opposition party leader of Burma; Aung San Suu Kyi. And as very much expected, a completely awkward silence had settled upon the whole meeting room after that.

But Mycroft wouldn't be in the position he was now, if he didn't how to handle some minor glitches like these. And that too especially when one has a sister like Sherline Holmes, one needs to be quick witted in-order survive all the embarrassments that are most definitely going to come your way.

So Mycroft just casually smiled and nodded to his phone and said, "Ah, that was my little sister reminding me to congratulate you and your supporters on her behalf on at last gaining freedom to express your views against the Military Junta*, after so many years of constant struggle, Ma'm." He paused for a second and then added in a low tone," She just has this different sense of humour, that's all."

And somehow the kind lady thanked him for the wishes and decided to move on; avoiding an awkward international event, luckily for everyone present.

Later, he sent his little sister a message which read: _"Dear sister, congrats on entering the second trimester. But may I duly remind you that you are sixteen hours early in celebrating it as you clearly already know. So for now, Good night."_

...

Sherly who hadn't even slept the whole night like a kid waiting eagerly for Christmas morning was annoyed as expected on receiving her brother's message and was rightfully verbally abusing him in her mind for being such a buzz-kill.

She knew that he was ofcourse referring to the exact time when she and John had gone for IVF procedure which was at around 4PM three months back. And she also knew that he was correcting her just to annoy her because all she wanted to do now was to send him a reply saying that people don't celebrate birth hour; they celebrate birth days! But since she was sure that her annoying big brother was certainly expecting an almost exactly worded reply, she grudgingly decided to refrain from doing so.

So just when she was dejectedly looking at her phone expecting a call from someone, John called. And she was so excited that at last someone had called her to join her in her happiness, that as soon as she picked up his call and he said "hello", she didn't give him a chance to say another word.

She started speaking in a rush of words in her own uniquely maniac way she usually did when was excited about something.

She said, "John! John, I'm so glad you called! I was so bored staring at my phone expecting you or somebody else to call me. Because seriously even after reminding everyone with a clever remainder message programmed into their phone; you are the only one how has called me till now. Well other than that stupid message which Mycroft sent me, that is. Even did not wish me... even though I had even kept Mrs. Hudson's tone alert extra loud. I believe she slept through the whole thing as I can't a hear any sound from downstairs. Must be because of her stupid herbal soothers; they are quite potent you know. I have to steal it from her one day."

She then took small a pause to take a breath and then continued again seamlessly...

"Well anyway, as soon as you come home lets go to Angelo's and celebrate, okay? Or wait, even better, let's order some late night Indian and watch some crap movie and celebrate here. No wait, not Indian; hmm it is too spicy for midnight snacking... Let's order Chinese from that restaurant across our street then; yes that would be fine. I am now in the mood for some fried wontons after eating boring heath food these three months. And yeah, I know... I know; second trimester doesn't mean I can eat every unhealthy thing I want to; but hey today no one is going to stop me okay? John? John, are you there?"

John who had been trying hard to keep up with the jet stream of words thrown at him, all the while thinking how stupid he had been for so long; responded with a single thoughtful "Hmm".

She then continued in a whining tone: "John I'm so bored. I want a case. Why is Lestrade not giving me any case? Johnnn..."

...

Meanwhile John felt like slapping himself for being such a fool. He ofcourse was grateful to his best friend for doing such a big thing for his sake. He knew the importance of what she was doing for him and knew that he could never repay her in kind for that. So he had decided earlier on that the least he could do, was to give them both, that is both Sherly and the baby, the best affordable comfort that he could buy for them.

But sadly, like the famously clichéd ad campaign for credit card, he had completely forgotten that there are few things money can't buy... and one for example was 'companionship'.

He was just too busy taking care of all her material comfort, that he had forgotten she needed emotional support and comfort too. He had completely forgotten that pregnancy hormones could wreak havoc on the mental and emotional state of even a certified sociopath; so then Sherly being after all only a self proclaimed one and decidedly wrong one at that, would have most certainly been affected. After all it was nature's own unique way of inciting the motherly instincts in a woman that it was almost sacred.

...

But realizing all these things now was not much useful as his shift was on till at least 6 'o' clock in the morning. And he couldn't even suddenly bail out saying some excuse since most of the other senior doctors were on off due to some new variety of flu virus doing the rounds and therefore there were only 1 other junior doctor and 1 intern on duty in the Trauma ward that night.

So as much as he hated to, John sadly had no other choice but to dash Sherly's excited hopes about having a nice late night take-away dinner and movie that night...

TBC

* * *

Military Junta*: The government run by a group of military people.

* * *

**AN:** I am a huge fan of Aung San Suu kyi from the time I read a lesson about her, way back in my school days. I really admire her character strength; because for a person who had been in house arrest for almost 15 years in total, she still strives to fight for the Democratic rights for her people. :)

...

Well anyways back to the FF; please do not forget to tell me your views about this first part... And yes, some of the ambiguities arising in this part, will be answered in the next. :)

And yeah, if you guys want me to write about something too, you can feel free to ask me. I will surely write if I can. :)


	11. Back to chase! Part2

**AN**: Sorry for the delay dears; my laptop actually died on me just after I posted the part-1. And only today I got it repaired. So well anyway, I am posting the part-2 now. But it looks like this chapter-10 is going to be atleast a three-parter now. And it's mostly because I seem to have pathetic 'Precise writing' skills! :/

And yes it was written in a terrible hurry; so please pardon any errors that you may find.

WARNING : Non graphic depiction of a crime scene.

* * *

**CHAPTER 10**

**BACK TO CHASE!**

**PART-2**

...But realizing all these things now was not much useful as his shift was on till at least 6 'o' clock in the morning. And he couldn't even suddenly bail out saying some excuse or the other since most of the other senior doctors were on off due to some new variety of flu virus doing the rounds. And therefore there were only 1 other junior doctor and 1 intern on duty in the Trauma ward that night.

So as much as he hated to, John sadly had no other choice but to dash Sherly's excited hopes about having a nice late night take-away dinner and movie that night...

When John told that to Sherly, she just went suddenly silent altogether; increasing John's guilt manifold... So he then promised her that tomorrow whole day they could do everything she liked including tracking down Lestrade and pestering him at his crime scene. The last part thankfully however earned a mildly happy chuckle from her, easing John's guilt at least partly.

Then just as he hung up the call, he decided to some rectifications of his mistakes. And the first thing he then did was to call Lestrade.

...

Lestrade who had just started to fall asleep again, cursed all the stupid stars that ruled his fate and picked up the call without bothering to see the caller ID thinking it must be from the Yard. But when he heard John's voice on the other end, he panicked thinking something bad must have happened to Sherline, if John was calling at such an odd time and said, " Is everything okay John? Is Sherline fine?"

"Oh, sorry Greg didn't want to scare you. Thought you did be awake anyway after Sherly's untimely and scary alarm... But guess I woke you up again, eh?"

"Ah...yes actually you kind of did mate. But hey now that I am awake anyway, tell me why you called? And if it is to say me not to kill your dear friend, then I would need a good bribe of quite few drinks to spare her this time, I will tell you that before itself! Seriously she made my voice sound so horrible that even I was scared of it! And for the record, I sound great when I sing!"

John who was laughing added, "Hey atleast you didn't get death glares from a grandma for celebrating her poor husband's freedom now, did you?" He heard a snort from the other end in reply. He then continued, "Well, actually I kind of did call you for her sake mate... She really needs a case to keep her sanity. And now that she is finally entered into her second trimester, it is a bit more safe than the first for doing physical work. And I do not have the heart to restrict her to the house anymore when there is no actual immediate danger to her health. And moreover I have been acting like a complete fool and neglecting her company and leaving her alone in order to work more shifts here at the hospital. So I was kind of hoping that you would give her some case of her type; you know something twisted and complicated to keep her interest for atleast a day or two?"John said the last words with a hopeful voice.

Lestrade: "Well John, when you put it like that, how can I refuse? I actually do have a case which I wanted her opinion on; but I thought it might not be good to get her too excited on a chase in this situation and was keeping it on a back burner till now. So well, I guess will call her tomorrow and give her the details then. And mate hope you will accompany her too; I don't want her running behind a killer all alone now, okay?"

John: "Thank you so much mate! I owe you one. No wait, I will treat you and your new girlfriend tomorrow itself, what say? There is that new stylish Italian restaurant which had opened near the hospital few days back; I have been planning to try it out since then. So if you both are free, we can all go there for dinner."

Lestrade answered with mirthful voice, "Well I will ask my 'new girlfriend' as you deliberately put it and if she agrees, then we have a deal mate."

John laughed and then ended the call after apologizing to him once more and bidding him goodnight. He was really hoping that tomorrow he could somehow makeup for all the stupid mistakes he had been doing so far and bring a smile on Sherline's face.

...

Sherly was actually dejected that John couldn't make it that night. But then she was hoping that tomorrow even if not Lestrade by himself, atleast John would somehow manage to persuade him to give her a nice interesting case. And thinking about all the excitement about the next day, she did not even know when she fell asleep.

...

The next day Sherly thankfully woke up to a call from Lestrade instead of the usual yell from Mrs. Hudson or John to get up and eat something. Lestrade informed her that he had a case for her and asked her to come to the Yard by afternoon to come and get the case files. But Sherline as expected asked him why she couldn't she come in the morning and get it from him. And he replied that he was on another case at Westminster just then. So as expected, Sherline did not waste another moment to get up and get ready for the new case that waited for her at Westminster!

As Sherly came fully dressed for a chase and yelled John's name, all she heard was silence. So she went to room to check if he was so crashed after yesterday night's shift that he was still sleeping, but found that his room was untouched. Then just as she was going to dial his number, John himself called. He said that he had been held up due to a multiple accident case and since most of the victims were still in a critical stage, he would be home by only around noon at the earliest.

...

John hadn't slept a wink for almost 24 hours by that morning. He had been on a continuous shift the previous day. And now since the victims, out of which one was a small boy, were all mostly in a critical condition and since the other doctors who had come back to duty only that morning, needed to be briefed the cases properly, he decided to wait atleast for few more hours to see whether they would be in a better condition before he finished the duty for the day.

Even though he had been planning on returning home early to catch some sleep and then call Lestrade for the case he had promised, so that he could go on a chase with Sherline, he knew that the current situation needed his attention more. He knew that sometimes duty does come first especially if there were lives at danger...

But nevertheless, he was feeling immensely guilty for not being able to keep his promise. And he just hoped that Sherline understood the situation and would forgive him for that.

...

But John didn't have to worry himself so much because luckily for him, Sherline did understand that fact despite what she said about the so called 'caring lark' of his, earlier. She now knew that when lives are at stake, almost nothing else should matter; especially now after spending three years in sabbatical for saving the lives of the people she cared.

So she said to him that Lestrade had called her few minutes back with a new case and she was going to Westminster to meet him there. And that after finishing his duty if he was feeling well enough to come for a chase, he could join her there. She told him that she will message the address later and ended the call.

Sherline then scoured the internet to find what was the breaking news in the Westminster locality, to zero in on Lestrade's case and to find its address. Atlast after few seconds of searching, she found a possible location and left for there.

...

When Sherline arrived at the crime scene, even before she noticed anything or anyone, what she saw was a shirtless man lying on the floor with frothy saliva pooling on the floor, near the door. She then scanned the room for something and when she found the item she crouched down and inspected it with her magnifying glass; all the while not touching any surface. Then after thoroughly checking the item to her satisfaction, she gave an accomplished smile evidently solving the case with that final glance.

But as she was getting up from her crouch, she suddenly started to feel nauseated and rushed to the bushes outside the house.

And just as she was straightening herselfback after being sick, she found that someone was extending some tissues to her. She took them gratefully and wiped her face. And when she turned to face the person to thank them, the face of the person she saw, completely surprised her.

And since Sherly would never give that credit to anyone, she tried her best to hide that fact. But evidently she had failed miserably if the loud mirthful laugh was any indication.

Sgt. Sally Donavan then said playfully, "Seriously Freak, your acting capabilities have gone down the drain without much practise I guess. Because if you continue like this, then even I would have to start to doubt my 'you are a certified psychopath' theory... Now wouldn't that be sad, hmm? " She then gave her a bottle of water after that.

Sherline who was trying her best to manage her embarrassment said, "Sally, I see that Scotland Yard is as useless as it had been three years ago and is still continuing to employ people like you. Pity that. Well anyway, I see that you are doing well. Steady boyfriend?" And then she took the offered bottle and drank a sip form it.

Sally surprisingly only smiled and said, "You know what? I actually missed these acidic talks from you. And guess it will be even more interesting now that pregnancy hormones are surging through your body. I know it because it almost turned me into a Godzilla for few days that even Lestrade maintained few feet distance from me during those days. It is really funny when your boss orders you staring at the wall behind you, unable to maintain eye contact with you!" She laughed good-naturedly.

Sherline who was surprised again, added, "Oh so you and your boyfriend have a baby? And I hope Anderson is not your boyfriend by the way, because I would really have to pity that baby then."

Sally proudly said, "Actually Allan is one and half years old. And his father is not my boyfriend, he is my husband. And no, Anderson is not my husband. But I hope his wife doesn't hear you saying that, because she is actually due to deliver their baby next month. And yes, before you say anything else let me tell you that they just reconciled a year back after continued grovelling from him which lasted almost 2 years. So if you would be kind enough not to spoil their currently settled life, I would surely be grateful to you!" She then proceeded to show her a shining wedding ring which was hung on a chain around her neck.

Sherly had no idea how she could miss so many things all at once. But she then thought that since Sally often was at crime scenes which required wearing gloves, she must have been wearing the ring around her neck all the time; hence missing the vital clue of ring imprint on her fingers.

Anyway, she somehow managed to get her wits back on time and decided to end the awkward conversation. So she simply said, "Well, I need to go inside and tell Lestrade that I solved the case before your stupid forensic team destroy all the vital clues and bag in all the wrong ones. And well, ah... thank you for these." She said the last words indicating to the extra tissues and bottle of water in her hand and walked towards the door.

And just as she was entering the house again, she heard something that sounded like, "Good to have you back." But she was sure it must have been her hormones playing trick on her and brushed it off her mind.

* * *

**AN:** I will hopefully update the next part tomorrow. And yeah reviews do encourage me to write faster. So *hint hint* *wink wink*. ;D


	12. Back to Chase! Part3

**AN:** Sorry for the delay everyone; real life took me on a ride for a while. And err I meant that literally... I was actually travelling on all modes of land transport for the majority of the last few weeks. So hopefully that excuses my tardiness.

Well anyway, this is a small part -3 of Chapter-10 and it will be later followed by one concluding part for this chapter. It is looking like this is going to be the longest chapter in the history of Chapters ever! Hehe

This chapter mostly contains the description of the crime scene. And I'm admittedly horrible in writing mystery; so please pardon me if you find any glaring logical loop holes in the case described below.

**Non beta'ed and Non Brit-picked.**

**WARNING: **Mentions of suicide.

* * *

**CHAPTER-10**

**PART-3**

When Sherly entered the house again, she noticed the looks on the people she did not notice earlier- part pity, part bewildered and part scared. And she would gladly accept that it was the last look she kind of enjoyed on their faces. Then in her peripheral vision she saw Anderson who was giving her a compassionate and commiserative look. And truth be told, that was one of the most horrible look she had ever received… Commiserative look from Anderson? God! She needed to delete that immediately!

Then well there was Lestrade standing near the doorway with an expectant look on his face. So she as usual ignored everybody's existence and went back to her element to explain the case to the ignorant masses. She started by asking in the general direction of the rest of the less intelligent population, "So why did you call me here? Is it to waste my time Lestrade? As you can see this case is certainly not worth my time."

In the background Lestrade may or may not have said, "I did not call you here! And certainly not for this case!" Which ofcourse Sherly ignored it as a part of the background noise just like the whirring of the fan and traffic outside and continued, "Well anyway you all are wasting your time, this certainly was not a murder as you idiots believe." She waited to the dramatic effect of her revelation to sink in. It always boosted her confidence...not that she needed it , but well a little bit of ego boost did not do anyone any harm, now did it?

Following that she continued with her routine which she really had missed for the past 3 and odd years... She said, "You people don't see do you? Hah! It proves my theory that you people lack brains because it has atrophied to that extent of non existence due to the lack of use!" Again in the background someone, most probably Lestrade was muttering some abusive word or the other in response to her taunts. Sherline therefore proceeded to move the show to climax without wasting further time. She regally walked towards the place where she had found the key evidence with the flourish of her coat. But when she bent to pick up the said evidence, which was the shirt of the dead person, it was missing! Sherline was furious; because it seemed these people were more idiotic than she thought and had actually destroyed the evidence!

When Sherline turned towards Lestrade so that she could give him a piece of her mind, he spoke hastily: "Before you insult the whole Met, just listen to me... If you were going to say something about the shirt, let me tell you that Anderson has already bagged it as evidence." After a small pause where everyone was granted their wish of a lifetime of seeing Sherline Holmes speechless, he continued, "Err he just said that you were staring at it for quite some time and hence he thought that it must be something important." And for a whole 3 seconds, Sherline thought that the world had actually tilted off its axis. Not that she actually remembered that it was on an axis or anything… But it's just sometimes some things are just so momentous that it couldn't be compared to anything sensible; like for example: Anderson actually using his brain! Well, if not for anybody, Sherline surely felt that way…

And then Anderson opened his mouth and everything came crashing back to normal for Sherline. Seriously she missed normal; well atleast what she considered normal that is. Because he said: "Yes ofcourse, I'm sure it will be a vital clue to solve this murder. I believe it will have the DNA of the murderer on them." He said it with a flourish, expecting praise from Sherline.

But since the world was back to normal and in normal world of Sherline such miracles rarely happened… She said: "How exceptionally wrong of you Anderson. Really, because if you are planning to follow my footsteps, then atleast follow it properly! Don't insult both of us by thinking you know what goes in my mind!" There was an unimportant, "What do you mean?" from the background, which she ignored completely and proceeded to unravel the mystery finally.

"That shirt indeed is the key evidence to this case. But the case in question is not a homicide but a case of well planned suicide gone wrong. He had planned to drug himself to death in a way it would mimic a heart attack. But he was not well versed neither into the pharmacology of the drug nor of the signs and symptoms of a cardiac arrest as he had failed to consider other side effects of the drug; especially excessive perspiration before the heart attack finally sets in and ofcourse the frothing of saliva. Because halfway through it he had realised that his clothing was soaking wet with sweat and removed it and threw it in general direction of the sofa, instead of calling for emergency services in those precious few minutes. And that is exactly why the shirt is vital clue as to why it is not a homicide."

Sherline took a moment to enjoy the stunned silence of the room. It was exhilarating to feel it after 3 and half years. It felt like she was alive again for real.

Then she continued her explanation because well John was not there to exclaim about her brilliance and the silence of the room was now grating on her nerves.

"Now if you idiots have gathered your wits, you may remember that the next question should be 'why?'. And if I am correct, which ofcourse I always am… I think it is done for scamming the insurance company."

And Lestrade when asked the predictable, "But why?"

Sherly replied in her usual sarcastic tone, "Seriously Lestrade why does anyone do the insurance scam ever?"

"So that a loved one can get the money immediately."

That was Anderson again. And this time Sherly admirably recovered from her shock earlier than expected. And again she reminded her brain to put a post-it note on her mind palace to delete the horror of this day as soon she got the time to sort it.

So Sherly in the meanwhile cleared her throat and said, "Ah yes that's right. So now the question is for whom and for what?" She then moved around to a table and pointed to the floor beneath it. When no one was giving any sign of recognition, she just huffed at their ignorance and proceeded to explain everything herself.

"What can you see here? No wait don't answer that. I have had enough of foolishness and horror for one day." She pointed to the floor and said, "If you see carefully, you can see multiple strands of long blond hair. Now considering the minimum amount of dust in the rest of the house, one could say that it is fairly cleaned almost every two days or so. But despite that there is abnormal amount of hair under the table, indicating that someone living here has a serious hair loss problem. Now alopecia* could be because of many reasons, but considering the pain killer bottles scattered poorly near all accessible surfaces combining with the red circles on the calendar at regular intervals, it could only mean that it is due to Chemotherapy. And considering the only photo that can be seen in this room corresponding to the said description, the said person is most probably is his wife."

Just when she was about to tell the rest of her conclusions regarding the case, a thirty something, blond haired female came barging into the house. Two officers who came running after her prevented her from touching the body, to prevent her from contaminating the evidence. She then collapsed nearby on the floor sobbing. Lestrade who was stunned by the whole scene, got his wits back and calmly asked her, "Ma'm can you please tell us who you are and what is your relation to the victim?" She replied that she was indeed the dead man's wife. And on further questioning she also confirmed Sherly's deduction that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy for it and that it was a costly affair.

Lestrade then explained to her what her husband had done for her and how horribly wrong it had gone. He actually didn't know whether to feel happy that his scam had failed or sad considering why he did that in the first place and that now he had lost his life for nothing.

The wife, Kathy, sobbed to the dead husband saying, "God! Why Ron? Why did you do something like this? You know I'm in an advanced stage and even if I do all the scheduled Chemo sessions, it is not going to cure me. Then why? God Why?"

The heart wrenching scene had made almost everyone who was present there's eyes moist and some even commenting that this showed that true love still existed in this world... But Sherly did not actually understand how the man's stupidity in thinking that he could fool the insurance company and give his dying wife money for now albeit useless therapy sessions, was a testament of true love and not a testament of utter stupidity.

But Sherly also did not know that all through time she heard the wailing of the woman, she had unknowingly been pressing a hand delicately on her stomach as if to shield the baby from the sadness of the world outside…

* * *

Alopecia*- Medical term for hair loss

* * *

**AN:** I just want to share a small random incident that happened last week, which seeing that this is almost a kid-fic, may be relevant in some vague way to this story.

So okay, while I was travelling on train sometime last week, there was one tiny little boy of around 2 and half years old sitting next to me. And after some time another kiddo of approximately same age, who was loitering around freely after having escaped the clutches of his parents came running next to the kiddo sitting next to me and started communicating in the most weirdest language I and everyone else sitting next to me including the first one's parents have ever heard- It was a new Laughter language! Yep! They both were communicating in various degrees of loud boisterous laughter interspersed with few words in different languages! It was so amusing to see that these two little sweet hearts even though did not understand each other's language still communicated in some way and became thick as thieves playing around the compartment by the time it was to get down. It was needless to say a truly adorable sight.

Okay that's it. Like I said random but well it inspired me to write the last line in this part. :)

* * *

_Well your thoughts? And yeah language surely is not a problem! :) Feel free to comment in any language you like because hey why else did they create all those Translation apps for? :D_

_And yeah, I'm sorry to say that from now on updates will be a little irregular owing to the sad demise of my fun filled holidays. :( :P_

* * *

**PS:** For the past few weeks I have seen that there is lots more traffic to this story for some unknown reason which I can't seem to put a finger upon. So well whatever the reason may be, I just wanted to say that I'm extremely happy to see that more and more people are reading this fic. So thank you to all you dearies out there! *hugs* :)


End file.
